Afraid that his footsteps would be heard due to the crushing of falling leaves he went a little deeper into the forest as he ran forward. Since the men were only walking he was able to run ahead of them and hide as he crouched behind a coconut tree.
Since they were on the beach the wind speeds were going to be an issue. With how windy it currently was his arrow's flight would surely be affected. Thankfully the winds were blowing towards the ocean and not the forest so things weren't as bad as they could have been.
After waiting a few minutes the men finally entered his 60ish-yard firing range. Since the wind flow curved slightly forward instead of firing right away he waited till the men were about to pass by the tree.
Once they were in the place he wanted them in he stretched out his bow and took a deep breath. He didn't know if his hands were shaking because of the strain of the draw or simply because he was nervous.
'Ullr, god of archery and hunting and all those other things. While I'm not fully convinced you exist I give you a small prayer. Let this arrow land where it's supposed to.'
As he finished his small prayer-like thoughts he let go of the arrow and froze as the string made a semi-loud noise when it regained its initial state.
Luckily for him, the men who were roughly 35 yards away from the forest line didn't seem to notice. Just like the sound of crashing waves drowned the bow string's noise it also seemed to drown the sound of the incoming arrow.
In the dark where the dim moonlight was the only source of light, Neil lost track of the arrow. The only way that he knew that the arrow had hit the target was the sharp cry of pain that broke the sound of the ocean waves.
"What is it?!" Yelled one of the men as he checked the injured man that had been carrying the kid.
"My back!!! My back hurts!!!"
As the man crouched to inspect his companion a piercing pain appeared in his left leg. When he looked at it a small arrow shaft could be seen lodged in it.
"An archer!! You coward show yourself!!!"
As the man dragged himself to the boy another arrow hit his back.
"A coward? If I'm a coward then what are you?"
After hearing the voice of an unknown person the two men turned around to see if what they heard was true. When they saw the small shadowy figure of a boy their faces became full of rage.
"A brat! A brat like you will not be the end of me!"
The boy smiled and shook his head, "No I won't kill you."
Hearing this the men smiled as a sense of relief and malicious thoughts ran through their bodies.
'I knew it a brat like you doesn't have the balls.'
This however only lasted for a brief second as the boy lifted his bow and and drew it with an arrow in place.
"The arrow will be doing the killing, not me."
"No! Wai…."
The first man who had been shot was silenced by an arrow that passed through his hand and into the eye socket.
At the sight of this Neil felt his body prepare to throw up and in the end, he had no choice but to swallow it.
'Thinking and doing are two very different things. Just because I could talk about killing so easily didn't mean it is.'
To make himself feel better he had tried to trick himself that the one killing wasn't him but the arrow. He knew that it was stupid and childish but it helped him come to terms with it. That had been why he had chosen a bow as his main weapon during training. The farther he was from the killing the better but being so close and to actually end a human life it had took a toll on him.
When the man saw that Neil hesitated he used the remaining strength that he had and threw this sword at Neil.
Neil who had regained his composure was barely able to dodge the spinning blade. A blade thrown without much aim was probably not much to worry about. That said the sword was sharp and it nicked his forehead as he dodged it.
He looked at the sword and then at the man who was cursing him and the sword, in the end, he too was silenced.
After checking on Ruan, the kid who had been taken, he sighed with relief. Other than a flesh wound and most likely a hit to the head that knocked him out he was okay.
"To think that there was a day when someone finally got you to shut up haha."
Neil then went to the men and looted their bodies. They each had a pouch on them which sounded like it had a bit of coin, there were also the axe and sword that they had on them.
'I wonder how much I can get if I sell the weapons to Buer.'
He quickly walked to the edge of the forest and cut a part of a tree to make a marker. He then proceeded to bury the loot in front with sand.
'That should do it. Now let's wake up the sleeping beauty.'
He tried waking up Ruan by shaking him but the kid remained unconscious. From then he tried slapping the kid awake which also failed.
'Well, I tried being nice.'
He grabbed the kid by the leg and began dragging him through the sand until the kid's face was somewhat submerged in water.
The blonde scrawny kid thrashed in the water and began spitting wildly.
"Wha! Neil! two…."
"Yeah, two men took you. I killed them already but there's more of them in the village and they want to raid it. We need to let my grandpa know but we can't let them see us. From what I could gather from what they are at the village getting treated and looked after. Grandpa gave them a small boat and some food but that wasn't enough for them."
The kid still seemed to be in a daze and not understanding anything so Neil gave up trying to explain the situation.
"We just need to get to someone from the village and not be seen by the men. If they find out that someone from the hunt had returned they might start their attack since their men might have been discovered."
The boy sluggishly nodded
"Okay."
Both of them ran as fast as they could towards the village as they hoped they weren't too late.